Stanley Winowicz Jr. nearly lost his composure when speaking at the dedication of the Navy Memorial in Hamilton’s Veterans Park last month.

The retired navy captain said he had a visceral reaction to the sight of the anchor in the memorial; it came from a World War II-era Landing Ship, Tank, the same class of ship his father served on.

“Sometimes being a veteran, you don’t understand how something might come forward and hit you until it does,” he said.

Winowicz, who served during the Vietnam War and Operation Desert Storm, said veterans, especially combat veterans, frequently keep such feelings to themselves, because of how their experience differs from the general population.

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“ are not in that trial by fire,” he said. “It’s something that’s very hard to describe.”

Military veterans, honored for their service with the federal holiday today, hold together in Hamilton with a community that has strengthened from a low point after the Vietnam War.

Coast Guard veteran Jake Engelman said, since he joined the local Veterans of Foreign Wars post in 1972, the attitude of the public and the community has changed over the decades. He pointed to packed parades and memorial services for soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan that would have been unheard of in the ‘60s and ‘70s.

“There’s a completely different attitude from when we came back from Vietnam,” he said.

That community also helped found the Hamilton Patriotic Committee some 16 years ago. The group has, through the backing of the community, created the Navy memorial Winowicz helped dedicate along with the Army and Air Force memorials in Veterans Park. The group’s spokesman, Ronnie Stewart, said their next project will be a Marine Corps memorial at the park’s south entrance.

Retired Col. Frank Caprario, the World War II veteran who founded the group, said he was glad the community has come forward to support them.

“I consider it a lifetime job on my part to make sure that all the people of America never forget what we as veterans, both male and female have accomplished to maintain what we have today,” he said.

The veteran community, including the VFW has become more active as well. Engelman said the VFW runs a color guard for parades, food drives for the needy, and helps out veterans and their families when in need.

“We try to help out as much as we can. If we have the people, we’ll be there,” he said, then joked. “It’s a semi-well oiled machine.”

In addition, the community is facing a turnover. Engelman has seen it firsthand; the Vietnam generation of veterans has gotten older.

“We’re losing members faster than you can imagine. There are posts coming down left and right,” he said.

The character of the latest group of combat veterans — those from Iraq and Afghanistan — has also changed from previous ones, he said. He said this often keeps them from devoting time to the VFW and other communities.

“They’re coming out of Iraq and Afghanistan and they have family now, they have children now,” he said. “They have these other obligations. That’s understandable.”

These veterans face their own issues as they came home from war, many of which last the rest of their lives. Nationally, veterans of all ages are more likely to have chronic conditions such as hypertension, emphysema and cardiac disease, as well as stress-related psychological conditions, according to a Centers for Disease Control study from 2010.

They also find themselves homeless and commit suicide at rates higher than the general population, according to the CDC.

Engelman said he has dealt with his own issues after seeing combat while in Vietnam in 1968 and 1969. In particular, he remembered his experience with summer nights in Pennsylvania.

“On a July or August night, where it’s hot and wet and everything is green, that brought back some memories,” he said. “Boy did the wheels go around.”

He said that veterans today deal with a different environment, which better understands the effects of combat, including Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. He said the Veterans Affairs administrations, at both the state and federal levels, have become better equipped to deal with the long-term physical and mental effects of combat injuries and stress.

Winowicz said the military philosophy of “soldiering on” can make it more difficult for veterans in need to seek help.

“I don’t like the homelessness I don’t like the suicide, and I don’t like any situation where people hurt themselves ... they have that attitude that says ‘I can handle it,’” he said. “They’re embarrassed to say ‘I need help.’”

He said it was important for the community to recognize the sacrifices made in their names by service members, and Veterans Day services, memorials such as Hamilton’s Veterans Park and the everyday “thank you for your service” were part of that.

The holiday itself started as Armistice Day, the 11th day of the 11th month, which marked the end of hostilities on the western front of World War I in 1918. In 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the law renaming the holiday as Veterans Day, honoring all former service members.